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9 Oct 2012

National determined to increase exodus

The Government today said it will introduce a pay rate for 16-19-year-olds - a minimum $10.80 an hour.

The new pay rate, to be called the 'starting-out wage', will not be compulsory but 40,000 teens will be eligible.

It kicks in on April 1 next year and the Government estimates it will create up to 2000 youth jobs in the first two years.

The starting-out wage will be set at 80 per cent of the adult minimum wage, which is currently $13.50 an hour.

Between 2008 and 2011, 34 thousand young people aged between 16 and 20 permanently left New Zealand to live and work overseas. In the same time period, the average income of the young people who remained only increase by 3.5% with inflation increasing by 9.8%. That means young people are already a lot worse off financially since National gained power. They have effectively become economic refugees in their own country.

Reducing their incomes by a further 25% will make it even harder for young people to live and work in New Zealand and will undoubtedly increase the exodus to Australia where the minimum wage is $15.96 per hour. Be ready to wave goodbye to more of your loved ones, especially if they're just trying to start out in the workforce.

There is no upside to National's policy, because it will simply not create more jobs. In fact it will mean a reduction in young peoples consumption because they will have less money to spend, which will negatively impact on the economy and ultimately mean more people lose their jobs.

The only thing National's idiotic policy means is that young people will be paid less, and once the six months are up, they will likely be replaced by another underpaid young person. There are no laws protecting their jobs from unscrupulous bosses, National made sure of that.

This is not only detrimental to young people, it's detrimental to the country because the people who will take advantage of National's agist policy will not share the wealth they gain, and inequality will continue to grow. We will also lose our best and brightest who have no financial reason to remain in New Zealand.

But I guess National doesn't really care about this as long as the businesses they invest in continue to post record profits... What a bunch of parasites!